Slow Joke Grin

You with the diamond hands
The quick wit sentences
I have no plans
You're the only home I ever wanted

Now five floors the above
Sirens moan
Steam pipes ticking all morning
I can hear the neighbors' baby through the walls
Love, is a songbird with a sick old clock

You with a slow joke grin
Watch the town torn down and built again
In the pause between the riddle and the punchline
The kite tethered tight to your chest

But I was never one
To second guess and draw a line
Between love and fear of loneliness

You with a sawdust tan
Broken trigger on a starting gun
I can't find another way to say I want you
I ought to pull this hook from my cheek

But I'll keep on shouting from the fire escape
I'll keep shouting from a wife
And window from a bridge
From a field, from a ferry in the harbor
From the sole dark wound of a mountain

I want you, I want you
I want you, I want you